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A businessman from Hialeah has been accused of laundering nearly two million dollars as part of a Medicare fraud scheme that totaled 41 million dollars, and of sending some of those funds to Cuba, according to federal authorities.
Edelberto Borges Morales, 62 years old, was arrested by federal agents as he was about to board a flight to Varadero this Thursday, according to Local 10 citing the indictment as the source.
However, instead of arriving on the island, he was transferred to the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami, where he remains incarcerated without a bail amount or hearing date being set, according to court records.
A $41 million fraud scheme
The criminal complaint filed in the federal court of Miami claims that Borges laundered 1.9 million dollars from a fraud involving three medical equipment companies in South Florida: One-Star Professional Services Inc., Med-Union Medical Center Inc., and Vida Med Center LLC.
These companies submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare totaling 41 million dollars, billing for durable medical equipment (DME) "that was never provided," the indictment states.
The investigation revealed that the beneficiaries who supposedly received the equipment "had never heard of the company that allegedly supplied it to them, nor did they have any connection to the prescribing physician listed in the billing documentation," according to Medicare records.
"Each of the interviewed beneficiaries stated that they neither needed nor received the durable medical equipment that was supposedly prescribed to them," emphasizes the complaint.
In particular, a doctor listed as a prescriber in One Star stated that "he had never heard of One Star" and that he had not practiced at the Medley address registered by the company since 2014.
In addition, he denied having prescribed medical equipment to the patients involved in the Medicare claims.
The fraud went even further: Over 95% of the billing was carried out using "procedure codes related to skin grafts and the application of dermal substitutes," but none of the beneficiaries required or had suffered injuries that justified this type of treatment.
In fact, one of them told the agents: "They scheduled so many skin grafts for me that they must think I'm a whale."
The role of Borges in the scheme
The authorities accuse Borges of using three companies registered in Hialeah to launder money from fraudulent billings.
The companies RX Exclusive and GBT Max were established on October 16, 2024, and A&MTX Group was created five days later.
They all operated from the same address: an office building at 1275 W. 47th Place, Hialeah.
"All DME companies sent checks to the companies of Borges," the investigators noted.
Furthermore, after analyzing the trips of the accused, the authorities discovered that he made approximately 35 trips between Miami and Cuba over a two-year period, which fueled suspicion that part of the money was transferred to the island.
The complaint details that Borges had photographs of blank checks from One Star on his phone, which contradicts his claim that he "did not know he was the designated owner" of the companies, and that he "had never cashed any of the approximately 2 million dollars in checks."
In his defense, Borges claimed that he had the photos "because he suspected that what the individual was asking him to do could one day land him in trouble," according to the complaint.
Possible connection with Cuba and risk of maximum penalty
The agents also noted that Borges claimed to reside in the United States but that he spent "a significant amount of time in Cuba due to the need to help a family member."
Now, Borges is facing a federal charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which could result in a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
The case is progressing in the federal court in Miami, where authorities are continuing to investigate the network of shell companies and the possible transfer of funds to the island.
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